Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Reclaim Fund

Lord Blunkett: To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) guidance, or (2) directions, they have given to the Reclaim Fund about the priorities for the allocation of its funding; and what, if any, requirements that organisation must observe in the allocation of funding.

Baroness Barran: Reclaim Fund Ltd is the Dormant Assets Scheme’s administrator. It is responsible for managing dormant assets in case of customer reclaims, transferring surplus funds to The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF). TNLCF is the named distributor of dormant assets funding, responsible for apportioning the surplus money among the four nations to be spent on social or environmental purposes. DCMS’ Secretary of State issues high level policy directions to TNLCF on the allocation of the English portion of this funding. It is directed to three social and environmental causes: youth, financial inclusion and social investment. These restrictions are currently set in primary legislation. To date, the funding has been directed to four independent organisations in England: Big Society Capital, Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, Fair4All Finance, and the Youth Futures Foundation. Funding must fulfill the additionality principle, support the three defined causes and be distributed for initiatives in England. Beyond these requirements, the four specialist spend organisations are free to determine the most appropriate way to deliver against their objectives.

Reclaim Fund

Lord Blunkett: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the funding distributed by the Reclaim Fund has been spent in each region of England by each of the organisations funded by the Reclaim Fund.

Lord Blunkett: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the process for organisations applying for funding from the Reclaim Fund; whether organisations are required to set out in their applications the geographical regions in which any funding will be spent; and whether details of those applications will be published.

Baroness Barran: Reclaim Fund Ltd is the Dormant Assets Scheme’s administrator. It is responsible for managing dormant assets and transferring surplus funds to The National Lottery Community Fund, the named distributor of dormant assets funding. Funds must be spent on social or environmental purposes. Dormant assets funding is not central government money and there is no central bidding process for accessing it. In England, funding is currently distributed to four specialist organisations who work across the areas of youth, financial inclusion and social investment. These organisations are independent from the government, and are not required to report to the government on geographical distribution of funding. Funding must fulfill the additionality principle, support the three defined causes and be distributed for initiatives in England. Beyond this, the four specialist spend organisations are free to determine the most appropriate way to deliver against their objectives. This includes geographical distribution of any organisations which may apply to them for funding. The organisations themselves are responsible for managing any such applications, including the geographical distribution of their work.

Ministry of Defence

Ajax Vehicles: Procurement

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish unredacted the report of theInfrastructure and Projects Authority into theAjax Armoured Vehicle programme.

Baroness Goldie: There are no plans to publish the IPA Assurance report of the Armoured Cavalry programme which contains commercially sensitive material. Such IPA reports are not intended for release. The current level of delivery confidence and the reasons behind such an assessment will shortly be published by the IPA in their Annual Report and accompanying transparency release.

Ajax Vehicles: Procurement

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assurances they have received from General Dynamics over (1) the overall cost of the Ajax Armoured Vehicle programme, and (2) the delivery of fully operational equipment under this programme.

Baroness Goldie: The contract with GDLS-UK covering the 589 vehicles, training and support is a Firm Price contract. There are 5 Capability Drops as part of the incremental delivery of the programme, with Capability Drop 4 as the final build standard to which all vehicles will be retrofitted. Drop 1 commenced mid 2020 and Drop 4 is currently planned to complete by the end of 2024.